Future Law Works

This is a simple directory of full-time law professors hosting and/or producing podcasts. I pulled all of the information here… Read More »Law Professor Podcast Directory

Begin here. Then read this.

Evidence

Despite the many flaws of law schools today, and despite naivete, ignorance, and obstinacy on the parts of schools, faculty, law firms, and practicing lawyers, I’m optimistic about the future.  Why?  Because I look at the large number of things in flux today, even looking only and specifically at law practice and legal education, and my story-oriented interpretation is that somethings (plural) are starting to shake loose. The scriptwriters, as they say, have given us a lot of plot points to chew on. There is evidence of instability, in small and maybe large respects, and the instability is resonating more powerfully than it has in the past. My optimism is intuitive: I’m optimistic that we may be able to decipher the instability, decode its sources and anticipate its payoffs, and plan and respond to it in ways that eventually produce great results. Like Westley and Buttercup in The Princess Bride, we may get through the Fire Swamp.

Read More »Legal Education’s Waterloo: The Last of the Fire Swamp

Begin here.

Story One 

Evolutionary (or adaptive) professionalism. 

Technological change, shifting financial markets, expanding and contracting labor markets, fluid trade patterns — the legal profession has seen these before, and it’s seeing related things now.  The values and principles that define law, lawyers, and the profession are durable and transcend the details of specific organizational forms and educational pathways.  Law schools today and law practice organizations should steer into the skid, so to speak, as they have learned to do in the past. That means accommodating new technologies and modes of education and practice into well-established pathways to professional excellence and community and client service.  Innovation and disruption will come, as they should, but they lead to legal worlds that look slightly different tomorrow compared to how they look today. 

If that’s your story of law and legal education, then its central strategic implication is pretty simple.  You don’t need to do much except carry on, ride out the tough times and celebrate the good times.  There is little need to lead. Be as distinctive as you must to maintain your competitive position. But in the spirit of E.M. Forster, only respond.

Read More »Legal Education’s Waterloo: Still in the Fire Swamp